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A new research project from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Tangible Media Group combines 3D printing, molecular gastronomy and macaroni. According to MIT News, researchers Wen Wang and Lining Yao have engineered flat sheets of gelatin and starch into shape-shifting noodles that react and fold when exposed to water. While Yao's goal of one day creating a self-folding dumpling is still out of reach for now, the research team thinks their breakthrough could help reduce food shipping costs and lead to new trends in fine dining.

3D printing has done a lot for medical science. It's helped us create better prosthetics, manufacture artificial vertebrae and even develop smaller internal cameras. Next, it could help us revolutionize medication delivery. MIT researchers are using a new 3D-printing process to create tiny structures that change shape at specific temperatures -- opening the door for a new drug delivery system that only medicates patients if they have a fever.

You may know Local Motors as the company behind the Rally Fighter, but these days, it's best known for creating the world's first 3D-printed car. As the company prepares to sell those cars to the public for the first time, it's come up with an unusual proposition for potential customers. From time to time, it wants to melt down their cars.

An ambitious maker has built a partly 3D-printed railgun that can fire aluminum or graphite projectiles at over 250 meters per second (560 mph). No, this isn't Quake, but it's no janky, all-plastic gun, either. The "handheld" weapon houses six capacitors that weigh 20 pounds and deliver over 1,800 joules of energy per shot. And it indeed works just like a full-sized railgun, using parallel electrodes to fire an "armature" bullet. The creator, David Wirth, added an Arduino Uno R3 to monitor charging levels, temperature and other factors, and tweaked the rails after he noticed "plasma damage."

If you come across any interesting videos, we'd love to see them. Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag @engadget or @mskerryd. And if you just want to heap praise on your handsome guest host, feel free to hit him up @mr_trout.

The past few months haven't been easy for Makerbot. But it doesn't seem like the restructuring and sizable layoffs are affecting the company's progress. Today it announced the opening of a new, 170,000-square-foot manufacturing center in New York City. For Makerbot, it means being able to double the production capacity of 3D printers, as well as offer better quality assurance for these machines -- and, considering a recent lawsuit, the timing couldn't be better. This doesn't only signal a commitment from Makerbot to keep growing its own operations, but also shows it doesn't plan to give up on a 3D-printing industry that's been struggling. The huge, upgraded space is located in Brooklyn's Industrial City, so you can expect Makerbot's 3D printers to keep the "Designed & Built in Brooklyn" branding for at least the next ten years.

From clothing to food, 3D-printed consumer goods are still hit or miss at this point. Even so, that hasn't stopped companies from trying to capitalize on the novelty of it. The latest to do so is audio outfit V-Moda, which has revealed plans to use new components for customization purposes. Starting today, V-Moda will let users personalize its XS and Crossfade M-100 headphones with 3D-printed shields made of different materials, such as fiber, stainless steel, sterling silver, solid 14 karat gold and platinum.

Dr. Mark Dean helped design the first PC during his career at IBM and shares his thoughts on the future of the desktop computer. Meanwhile, Katy Perry's lawyers go after Left Shark impostors and students in Singapore make a 3D-printed solar powered car. Get all of today's top stories in the Daily Roundup.

Give some students a 3D-printer, some solar panels and about a year's worth of time, and what do you get? No, not a solar-powered bong (though good idea) -- solar race cars, that's what! Engineering students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have built 3D-printed solar electric car prototype, the NTU Venture 8 (NV8), and plan to race it in Shell's Eco Marathon Asia event later this month. The team was originally looking at a supercar design, but decided to go with "a sensible cute micro-car with vertical opening doors" that can run at up to 60 km/h (37 mph).

So far, the biggest benefit of 3D-printing organs is that you don't need someone to donate their body to medical science before you can do an experiment. That's why Organovo's big news is so exciting for scientists, since the company has let it be known that its 3D-printed livers are now on sale. The bio-printed tissues can be used for drug testing programs, since causing unexpected liver damage is one of the biggest causes for pharmaceutical recalls. Unfortunately, with a rated lifespan of around 42 days, we won't be able to use these stamp-sized organs in transplants just yet, but who knows? Maybe in a few years time, the idea of asking a relative or close friend for a slice of their liver will be as outdated as sending them a fax.

Robots will need to pave the way to Mars before we humans go, but what if they fall apart? Researchers from the University of Oslo have designed bots that can adapt to unforeseen problems and even 3D-print new parts for themselves. For instance, the crawler shown above actually used to have four legs, but it figured out how to propel itself on three when one limb snapped off. Another class of robot would be completely self-designed and self-healing -- the scientists just need to tell it "what we would like it to do, how fast it should walk, its size and energy consumption." An autonomous computer could then consider thousands of options, and 3D-print parts to create a new model.

Makerbot has just announced the launch of an EU division called Makerbot Europe in order to replicate its US 3D-printing success overseas. The company has already been successfully selling its Replicator Mini (above) and other models through distributor Hafner's Buro in Europe. However, it decided to acquire its distributor outright to make it easier to sell and market the 3D printers across Europe. Former Hafner chief Alexander Hafner will run the new division. MakerBot was itself recently bought by industrial 3D-printer maker Stratasys for $400 million, or so after selling nearly 22,000 3D printers across the US.

3D printing has made low-volume manufacturing of highly personalized products both affordable and accessible, but first you need a printer. A number of businesses have sprung up to bridge that gap -- investing in printers so you don't have to -- and now Amazon has opened up a dedicated storefront on its US site to connect customers with these sellers. The themed portal is stocked with over 200 products at launch, from jewelry to homeware to toys, that companies will print to order. Many can be also be customized, whether that simply be choosing a different color or tweaking numerous features of a design. You can also preview a 3D mockup of your creation before you buy, and now if you'll excuse us, we've got bobbleheads to order.

The age of purchasing video game figurines from a store, like a peasant, has ... evolved.

You can print out your own 3D Evolve hunters and monsters using files direct from Turtle Rock Studios and 2K Games. Find the 3D file for each character on their individual hunter and monster pages, and print them out at home on the 3D printer that you definitely own, right next to your Twitter-connected refrigerator, talking air conditioning unit, hologram phone system and cotton candy maker. That said, if you don't own a 3D printer, Turtle Rock suggests uploading the files to Sculpteo, Shapeways or Thingiverse, and following the instructions to get the figurines direct from there.

It turns out that robots don't need to be BigDog-sized to be freaky. Scientists at the University of Illinois have created one a mere centimeter (half-inch) in size built on a 3D-printed hydrogel backbone. The "ew" part is what powers it: a strip of skeletal muscle cells triggered by an electric current. Previous biobots built with heart tissue couldn't be controlled, but muscle cells can be activated with electric pulses and made to "walk" at different speeds by varying the frequency. If that's not making you queasy yet, how about this: the researchers think that such devices could be used for surgical robots, mobile environment detectors and even "programmable tissue engineering." That sounds like a noble goal, but we imagine Cyberdyne Systems thought the same thing.

Researchers from MIT and Lawrence Livermore have created a new class of materials with the same density as aerogels (aka frozen smoke) but 10,000 times stiffer. Called micro-architected metamaterials, they can withstand 160,000 times their own weight, making them ideal for load-bearing, weight-sensitive applications. To do it, the team created microscopic lattice molds using a 3D printer and photosensitive feedstock (see the video below), then coated them with a metal 200 to 500 nanometers thick. Once the lattice material was removed, it left an ultralight metal material with a very high strength-to-weight ratio. The process also works with polymers and ceramics -- with the latter, they created a material as light as aerogel, but four orders of magnitude stiffer. In fact, it was 100 times stronger than any known aerogel, making it ideal for use in the aerospace industry. Given that it was funded by DARPA, it could also end up on robots, drones or soldiers.

The Nightmare tower will be assaulted head-on in the next Guild Wars 2 content release, and players get to disregard the lessons taught by every horror movie ever and step inside. What do you mean, Marjory Delaqua already sent a team in and they didn't come back? Pfft, they were probably amateurs. You can handle it.

Players who storm the tower can unlock a nifty gas mask skin that can be applied to any head armor, as well as a version of the standard underwater breather to wear on dry land. Other rewards include a toxic spore backpack skin and two Toxic Krait miniatures, but you can only access them if you come back...alive.

To top things off, ArenaNet is hosting a Rock the Nightmare music video contest. Break out your best editing skills to create a one-minute video for the song "The Nightmares Within," which can be found on ArenaNet's Soundcloud, and you could win a 3D-printed GW2 guitar or some SteelSeries gaming gear! Nightmares Within will go live on November 12th.
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3d-printinganetarenanetb2pbuy-to-playcontestsfantasyguild wars 2guild-wars-2gw2living-storyliving-worldmusic-videonightmares-withinpatchessteelseriestower-of-nightmarestoxic-allianceTue, 05 Nov 2013 09:00:00 -0500319|20760909https://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/21/attach-more-things-to-your-head-with-oculus-rift-sensor-camera/https://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/21/attach-more-things-to-your-head-with-oculus-rift-sensor-camera/https://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/21/attach-more-things-to-your-head-with-oculus-rift-sensor-camera/#comments

Oculus Rift dev kits have been out in the wild for just under a month and the gameplay videos and mods keep trickling in. The latest mod comes for the hardware itself, two clips to add extra motion sensors or cameras to the back or front of the headset, both 3D-printed. Hackaday's Caleb Kraft designed and printed the attachments, one for extra, heavier sensors that threads through the flexible strap on the back of the Oculus Rift, and one that snaps right onto the front of the system, mainly for cameras.

"While browsing an Oculus Rift thread on Reddit, I saw someone mention how nice it would be to have some actual mounts for external sensors on their Rift," Kraft writes. "The idea is that adding additional sensors or cameras will allow us to expand the capabilities of the Rift."

Don't you hate finding out the games you enjoy playing are actually a ruse to teach you about theoretical economics? Apparently that's what Minecraft has been doing all along, at least as it's presented in the above PBS Idea Channel video. It's the betrayal of outNumbered! all over again.

Idea Channel suggests creative mode in Minecraft is a perfect simulation of a post-scarcity economy, where we have unlimited resources and spend our time building magnificent structures because we don't have to bother with hunting and gathering, as is done in Minecraft's standard mode. While a post-scarcity economy is pretty impossible, tools such as the Makerbot, a cheap 3D printer, are helping to make these forms of creation readily available to larger society, the video posits.

Next time you boot up creative mode, maybe consider how many years it will be until you have an infinite-inventory machine in your own home, and how long it would take to create a physical replica of Hogwarts castle. To scale.
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3d-printingeconomymakerbotmicrosoftminecraftmojangpcpost-scarcity-economyxboxWed, 25 Jul 2012 21:00:00 -040011|20286353https://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/04/mineways-create-3d-prints-of-your-minecraft-creations-or-pay-s/https://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/04/mineways-create-3d-prints-of-your-minecraft-creations-or-pay-s/https://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/04/mineways-create-3d-prints-of-your-minecraft-creations-or-pay-s/#comments

3D printers are, indisputably, super awesome. They're boxes full of magic, hope, and lasers, which create substance from nothing and reality from dreams. Coincidentally, Minecraft basically does the exact same thing, by providing the user with a cuboid sandbox for their imagination to run wild in. Now, these two worlds of creation can be joined together via Mineways, a 3D model-exportation tool created by Eric Haines.

The process breaks down like this: Using Mineways, Minecraft players can select a portion of the world they've built and export it as a texture file and 3D model, in file formats compatible with the rendering software used by 3D printers. Those files can then be printed, creating an adorable little real-life version of whatever it is you had exported.

If you're not part of the 1 percent and as such do not have access to a 3D printer, your exported files can be sent to a printing service like Shapeways, which does exactly what a 3D printing service sounds like it would do. Based on the size and complexity of the model, getting something printed can run from 25 bucks for a small doodad to several hundred dollars for a complete landscape.

Somewhere, a very wealthy Minecraft/model train enthusiast is extremely pleased. Click here to grab the open source software directly from Eric, and to see an in-depth how-to guide.
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3d-printingeric-hainesmacmicrosoftminecraftminewaysmobileopen-sourcepcshapewaysxboxWed, 04 Jan 2012 01:00:00 -050011|20139559https://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/27/kinect-plus-3d-printing-equals-instant-miniature-you/https://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/27/kinect-plus-3d-printing-equals-instant-miniature-you/https://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/27/kinect-plus-3d-printing-equals-instant-miniature-you/#comments

Thanks to an inventive, and kind of bizarre, project, people have immortalized themselves as Kinect sees them. The Fabricate Yourself project uses 3D models captured by Kinect as the basis for a 3D-printed figure.

Designer Karl D.D. Willis came up with the project as an interactive installation for the Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction conference. Attendees's shapes were captured by Kinect, and then turned into pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. But the implications are larger than just a cool thing at a conference. As 3D printers become cheaper, it will be possible for more people to use this technology to take 3D snapshots as if they were taking Polaroids.

It will also be possible to make a tiny action-figure version of yourself to fight with the Hulk. Not that we, as totally mature adults, have any interest in such a thing, of course.
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3d-printingfabricate-yourselfkinectmicrosoftpcxboxSun, 27 Feb 2011 16:30:00 -050011|19860663https://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/20/joyswag-personalized-ds-stylus-from-shapeways/https://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/20/joyswag-personalized-ds-stylus-from-shapeways/https://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/20/joyswag-personalized-ds-stylus-from-shapeways/#comments

[Update: The contest is closed! Keep an eye on your email to see if you've won.]

Shapeways uses 3D printing technology to fabricate items based on submitted 3D models -- like the custom Nintendo-themed DS styli we've featured. The site has graciously offered to activate its futuristic alien technology for Joyswag purposes, meaning that one lucky winner will receive a stylus like the one above, designed by extrudedqwerty, in stainless steel, customized with the winner's own initials on the back.

Shapeways is doing the impossible -- printing a solid object just for you -- and all you have to do is:

Leave a comment telling us what kind of stylus you use now

You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec)

Limit 1 entry per person per calendar day

This entry period ends at 11:59 am ET on Friday, July 24

At that time, we'll randomly select one grand-prize winner to receive a personalized Hylian Shield DS stylus from Shapeways ($30 ARV)

Today FigurePrints revealed their brand new line of 3D printed WoW products in the form of 3-piece collectible non-combat pets -- FigurePets! As always I was on hand with a camera, a knife and a box of products to open cautiously on camera to give you the first impressions on this exciting new product range.

Also I managed to sit down with Ed Fries, the FigurePrint founder, and ask him a few questions about the new FigurePets and what else might be on the horizon for 3D Printed WoW Products.